By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 24, 2015

Plan to construct a port at Chudamani in Bhadrak by private developer has been put on back burner as a case in this regard is still pending before the Odisha High Court, according to commerce and transport minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi.

The minister, in reply to a question in the assembly on Saturday, said the state government has signed MoUs with private companies for developing four ports, including the one at Gopalpur.
Orissa High Court in May 2012 had issued an interim stay on the state government from further signing of MoUs or new concession agreement with the developers or private minor ports without “leave of the court”.

The state government announced its Port Policy in 2004 for development of 12 minor ports by private operators. Soon after, international competitive bids were invited for the Gopalpur Port and one private party i.e Gopalpur Port Development Pvt. Ltd. was selected through this bidding process. The policy did not have eligibility criteria as to minimum turnover, financial worth, and years of business experience in portdevelopment.

However, after this first selection process, the government has allotted ports through direct negotiation without inviting tenders or competitive bids for Subarnnarekha mouth port, Astaranga port and Chudamani port.

Similarly, the state government had signed an MOU with Essel Mining and Industries for development of the Chudamani port, while it has already handed over two ports, Subarnarekha mouth and Astaranga to CreativePort Development Pvt. Ltd., and Navayuga Engineering Co. Ltd respectively.

Odisha has identified 14 potential places for ports. While work on two at Dhamra and Gopalpur is over, all others are virtually in the drawing board stage. The other ports are proposed at Bichitrapur, Subarnarekha river mouth, Bahabalpur, Chandipur, Inchudi (all in Balasore district), Chudamani (Bhadrak district), Barunei river mouth (Kendrapada district), Jatadhari mouth (Jagatsinghpur district), Astaranga, Baliharachandi (Puri district), Palur, Bahuda river mouth (Ganjam district).

The minister informed the House that the Gopalpur Port is likely to restart operations from August 30. The port was closed after cyclone Phailin struck Odisha coast on October 12, 2013. The Gopalpur Ports Limited started commercial operations from its all-weather port on March 29, 2013.

Dhamra Port, operating since May 2011, has got environmental clearance for its second-phase expansion, he said, adding, lands are being acquired for two more ports at Subarnarekha creek in Balasore and Astarang in Puri, Majhi added.